Thursday, February 23, 2017

When
President Donald Trump delivers his first speech to a joint session of Congress
Tuesday night, he’ll see a House chamber as divided as the nation.

Dozens of
Democratic members of Congress boycotted Trump’s inauguration, but they plan to
turn the joint session into a mini protest. Many are bringing as guests Muslims,
the disabled and other minorities who they say will be hurt by Trump’s
policies.

So Trump
faces a test: Will he be the combative campaigner people either love or hate or
will he offer an olive branch?

Trump gave
Congress, even Republicans, the back of his hand in his inaugural address, failing
to mention House Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
He castigated the same politicians he’ll address Tuesday in prime time.

“Their
victories have not been your victories, their triumphs have not been your
triumphs,” he said. “And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there
was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”

Stephen
Miller, the aide who wrote the inaugural address, with its bleak picture of

“American carnage,” is also writing the joint session speech. This time,
though, the president will present an optimistic, positive vision, officials
say.

Trump, who
insists he inherited “a mess,” will talk about what he’s done so far and where
he plans to take the country in broad terms.

“It’s
important for the American people to know that he was an agent of change; he
came here to get things done, and he didn’t waste any time,” White House press
secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday.

“In the drafts that I’ve seen so far, it is going to be a
very strong blueprint of where he wants to take this country,” Spicer said.

While Trump
has signed executive orders to achieve some of his goals, he needs legislation
for many of the big items on his to-do list: tax cuts, infrastructure projects,
health care reform and a secure border. That means working with Capitol Hill.

But Trump’s
dismal approval ratings make it easier for Democrats, and perhaps some
Republicans, to keep him at arm’s length. Just 42 percent of Americans approve
of the job Trump is doing, lower by far than any other president after a month
in office, Gallup reports. A nationwide poll by Quinnipiac University released
Wednesday found Trump with 38 percent job approval.

Rep. Jim
Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, is leading the effort among House Democrats
to bring as guests people who have faced discrimination and made positive
contributions.

Langevin’s
guest is Dr. Ehsun Mirza, a Pakistani-born critical care physician and
naturalized citizen who is a leader in Rhode Island’s Muslim community.

Trump’s
speech is not officially a State of the Union address. The last five presidents
have spoken to Congress early in their first year but have waited until the
second year to deliver a State of the Union address.

After the
bitter and protracted 2000 election, President George W. Bush addressed
Congress Feb. 27, 2001, on his Administration’s Goals.

“Together we
are changing the tone in the nation’s capital,” Bush proclaimed. He promised
education would be his top priority.

“Let us
agree to bridge old divides. But let us also agree that our good will must be
dedicated to great goals. Bipartisanship is more than minding our manners; it
is doing our duty,” Bush said.

Which
reminds us that even if we like what a president says at such august occasions,
we should take their words with a grain of salt.

In February
1981, shortly after he took office, President Ronald Reagan addressed Congress on
his Program for Economic Recovery, calling for massive tax cuts, spending cuts
on domestic programs and hefty increases in defense spending.

Warning that
the national debt was approaching $1 trillion, Reagan offered a dandy word
picture.

“If you had
a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you’d be a
millionaire,” Reagan said. “A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand
dollar bills 67 miles high.”

But Reagan’s
policies only exacerbated the debt. By the time he left office the national
debt had nearly tripled. That stack of thousand dollar bills would have been
160 miles high.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

President Donald Trump turned to House Speaker Paul
Ryan the other day and said: “He’s working on Obamacare. It’s going to be very
soon -- right?”

“Yes,” Ryan replied, as cameras rolled in the Oval
Office.

More than a nudge from the president, Ryan could use some
Lyndon Johnson-style arm twisting to make good on the Republicans’ long-term
promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has left details of reforming health insurance
to Ryan and other Republicans in Congress, but they are floundering in a sea of
options.

Trump still sounds like he’s an outsider on the
campaign trail. When Humana became the latest major insurer to say it will stop
selling coverage on Obamacare exchanges in 2018, Trump tweeted: “Obamacare
continues to fail. Will repeal, replace and save health care for ALL
Americans.”

Yet he has presented no plan of his own and the goal
of replacement seems to be slipping farther into the future.

As a House member, Tom Price, the new Health and Human
Services secretary, offered a plan, one of many. None of the other plans has galvanized
widespread support even within the GOP, let alone with Democrats. It’s unclear
what Senate Republicans will accept.

Ryan went door-to-door, trying to build a consensus
around his “Better Way” plan, but Republicans even disagree on timing -- repeal
and replace at the same time or repeal first and take time on a replacement.

Trump has said repeal and replace will be “essentially
simultaneous.”

But Ryan told reporters this week that reform “affects
every person and every family in America,” and a deliberate, “step-by-step
approach” is needed for stability.

House Republicans received plan options at a party
caucus before they headed home for the week-long Presidents Day break.

Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of about
35 to 40 of the most conservative Republicans, wants to repeal the law now and is
backing a plan by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Paul’s plan would undo most of the Obamacare rules,
rely on expanded health savings accounts, allow people to buy insurance across
state lines and join associations to increase purchasing power.

Paul would also jettison the Medicaid expansion that
was a state option under the Affordable Care Act. That’s a sticking point. It’s
always easier to give people a benefit than take one away.

Before he left office, President Barack Obama urged
Democrats not to “rescue” Republicans in their efforts to replace Obamacare. House Republicans voted scores of times to repeal Obamacare
since the law was enacted in 2010 without a single Republican vote.

Despite the years of controversy over Obama’s
signature law, it appears many Americans remain surprisingly uninformed. More
than one in three either thought the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are
different programs or didn’t know whether they are the same or different, a
poll by Morning Consult reported last month.

The Trump administration is taking actions that
actually could make the law more palatable to critics.

The Internal Revenue
Service is relaxing a key enforcement mechanism scheduled to take effect this
year. The IRS was to withhold tax refunds from people who failed to comply with
the mandate to purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Instead, IRS will
process returns and refunds as usual.

In addition, HHS just proposed new rules aimed at
stabilizing the exchanges to encourage insurers to keep offering coverage and customers
more plan choices.

Obama promised Americans if they liked their doctors
or their health insurance plans, they could keep them. The claim turned out to
be false and was a source of anger that motivated many voters.

Trump promised to get rid of Obamacare and put
something better in its place while retaining the law’s popular provisions.

People
hate paying higher insurance premiums – which they blame on Obamacare even
though premiums were rising before the law. But they like keeping children under
26 on their insurance plans and not being denied, or priced out of, coverage
because of pre-existing medical conditions.

It’s a curious turn that, for the time being anyway, Republican
dithering on Capitol Hill means Trump is keeping Obamacare alive.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Historians trace the first public celebration of
George Washington’s birthday to the harsh winter of 1778 at Valley Forge during
the Revolutionary War.

That’s when fifers and drummers from Proctor’s
Continental Artillery band played for the general at his quarters.

For the first holiday in honor of Washington’s
birthday, though, Americans can thank the French.

In 1781, Count Rochambeau granted the French Army in
Rhode Island a day off and held a parade to celebrate Washington’s birthday. In
those halcyon days before tweets, Washington thanked the count in a letter.

“The flattering distinction paid to the anniversary of
my birthday is an honor for which I dare not attempt to express my gratitude,”
Washington wrote.

Celebrations continued, but President Washington
suffered the slings and arrows of a critical press. A newspaper writer blasted
the Washington birthday celebration in Philadelphia in 1793 as a “monarchical
farce” that exhibited “every species of royal pomp and parade,” Ron Chernow
writes in “Washington: A Life.”

The federal government first gave its employees in
Washington a legal day off to celebrate Washington’s birthday in 1879. Some were
paid, others not. The government extended the paid holiday to federal employees
everywhere in 1885.

History does not record, to my knowledge, when -- or
why -- the first American decided to buy a mattress to celebrate the birth of
the Father of our Country.

We tend to blame the 20th century for
cashing in on Washington, but the practice started even while he was alive.

“George Washington surely holds the record for the
number of times the image of a historical figure has appeared on goods made for
the American home,” art historian William Ayres wrote in an essay on the
commercialization of the Washington image from 1776 to 1876 in “George
Washington: American Symbol.”

Moderns, prodded by the tourism industry, made
Washington’s birthday into a three-day weekend.

President Lyndon Johnson signed
the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968, effective in 1971, celebrating
Washington’s Birthday on the third Monday in February; Memorial Day on the last
Monday in May and Veterans Day on the fourth Monday in October. Veterans were
outraged, and the last was moved back to Nov. 11.

“It will enable families who live some distance apart
to spend more time together. Americans will be able to travel farther and see
more of this beautiful land of ours. They will be able to participate in a
wider range of recreational and cultural activities,” LBJ said at the signing
ceremony.

He didn’t mention shopping.

How the third Monday in February became known as
Presidents Day is a bit of a mystery. Some blame President Richard Nixon, but his
1971 executive order does not mention Presidents Day.

Congress, in a rare stroke of genius, never officially
changed the holiday from George Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day.

Most states adopted Presidents Day, even though it dilutes
the Washington connection. Illinois has holidays
for Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday Feb. 13 and Washington’s on Feb. 20 this year. Virginia sticks with George Washington Day. Alabama
commemorates both Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s birthday on Feb. 20, even
though Jefferson’s birthday is in April.

One enduring birthday tribute to Washington is the
reading of his 1796 Farewell Address on the Senate floor. His letter from “a
parting friend” warns the young nation against geographical divisions, political
parties and foreign interference in domestic affairs.

The address was read in 1862 during the Civil War in
hopes of building morale, and every year since 1896 a senator has read aloud the
entire address – 7,641 words. It usually takes about 45 minutes and often the
senator reads to an empty chamber.

Cynics say the reading is a charade since
the Senate ignores Washington’s wisdom.

But his words draw us back to what matters, especially
in times that pull us apart.

“The name of American, which belongs to you in your
national capacity must always exalt the just pride of patriotism,” he wrote.

“With slight shades of difference, you have the same
religion, manners, habits and political principles. You have in a common cause
fought and triumphed together.”

Thursday, February 2, 2017

In the splendid movie “Hidden Figures,” astronaut John
Glenn is about to blast into space and become the first American to orbit the
Earth when he makes a request.

“Get the girl to check the numbers,” he tells NASA.

Katherine Johnson is the “girl” whose mathematical
prowess Glenn trusts more than IBM computers to calculate the flight trajectory.
She verifies the numbers and Glenn rockets into history on Feb. 20, 1962.

The story seems too good to be true, a Hollywood fabrication,
but Glenn did ask for Johnson to do the math, NASA confirmed.

“Hidden Figures” tells the story of three black women mathematicians
who worked in the NASA Langley Research Center in Jim Crow Virginia of the
early 1960s.

Even though President Barrack Obama in 2015 gave
Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor,
most Americans were unaware of the hundreds of women whose calculations helped
put America into space.

Now, special screenings around the country during
Black History Month are introducing girls and boys to women who love math and persevere
against formidable odds, undaunted by discrimination and unfairness.

Based on real people and facts, the movie was inspired
by Margot Lee Setterly’s proposal for the book “Hidden Figures.” Producer Donna Gigliotti was so impressed she bought the movie
rights before the book was completed.

Growing up in Hampton, Va., Setterly knew Johnson and heard
stories about working at NASA from her dad, a research scientist. What seemed
like no big deal in her hometown was largely unknown elsewhere.

At times funny and others sad, the movie lets the brilliance,
determination and patriotism of the women unfold in sharp contrast to the era’s
benighted attitudes about race and women’s roles.

As TV news brings the civil rights movement into their
living rooms, the women struggle to thrive in an environment where the work
areas, lunch rooms, restrooms and water fountains are all segregated and
promotions rare.

Setterly, a 1991 University of Virginia graduate who
worked on Wall Street and published an English language magazine in Mexico,
began her research in 2010.

“It probably took three years of just research for me
to just figure out how to tell the story -- really digging into these different
strands of Virginia history, the history of these women,” she told
collectSPACE.com, a space history and memorabilia website.

Her hard work paid off. “Hidden Figures” tops the Feb.
5 New York Times bestseller lists for combined print and e-book nonfiction and
paperback nonfiction.

The film, a box office blockbuster, won the Screen
Actors Guild award for feature cast ensemble and has been nominated for three
Academy Awards, including best picture and best writing for an adapted screenplay.

R&B star Janelle Monae plays Mary Jackson, who
goes to court for the right to attend segregated night classes so she can
pursue her dream of becoming an engineer. Kevin
Costner is understated as Al Harrison, the decent boss who respects Johnson.

While some events and characters are fictionalized, the
crux of the story is true, said director Theodore Melfi, who consulted during
production with Setterly and NASA chief historian Bill Barry. Melfi took Taraji
P. Henson, who plays Johnson, to meet the real Johnson, 98, to get a feel for
her bearing and character.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the
precursor to NASA, hired five white women as human “computers” in 1935 and
brought in black women in the 1940s. Male engineers had done the calculations, but
they hated spending their time that way.

“They realized the women were much more accurate, much
faster and did a better job – and didn’t complain. And you could pay them
less,” Barry said in a broadcast to schools. “That actually got put in a memo:
`Isn’t this great? They do this great work and they’re cheap.’”

Great the work was, and so is “Hidden Figures.” There’s
nothing cheap about the film.

You could say seeing Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson
as role models is pure gold – Oscar gold.